Did you know that around 40% of users will abandon your website if it takes more than three seconds to load? Also, Google gives faster websites a better page rank in search engine results? Well, it’s true. The online world is all about speed – the faster, the better. A slow website will not only have an increase in the abandon rates but also experience a drop in page rank and build bad brand reputation. Today, we are going to offer you some tips to help boost the speed of your WordPress website.
1. Select the best Web Hosting solution
A web host is a place where your website resides. Therefore, it is safe to say that a good host can enhance the performance of your site and vice-versa. Ensure that you choose the best WordPress Hosting solution for your site and experience better page load speeds, response times, and better management of sudden traffic spikes.
2. Use the best themes and plugins
WordPress has thousands of plugins and themes to help you make the most out of the platform. It is important that you choose plugins/themes from well-known developers. This ensures that the tools are of good quality and are updated regularly to keep your website performing well. A bad plugin can cause more harm than good to your WordPress website.
3. Don’t delay updates
WordPress updates help keep your site performing optimally while keeping it secured. Many site owners tend to delay the updates due to the dearth of time. However, this can expose your site to security threats and also dampen its performance. Stay updated at all times.
4. Integrate Caching
Caching is a process which helps reduce the number of requests processed by your web server by storing copies of the files in a temp location. By doing so it can fulfill requests without accessing the main server. This helps reduce the load time to a great extent.
5. Image Optimization
While images can attract visitors to your site, they can also increase its load time. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the images on your site. You can use plugins like Imsanity, WP Smush, etc. to resize and compress images without compromising on quality.
6. Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Despite optimizing images and videos, some sites contain heavy media files which can increase the loading time. In such cases, integrating a CDN allows them to store their files across multiple locations in smaller servers. So, when a user visits the website, the server closest to him is called into action resulting in a reduced load time.
7. De-clutter
We delete unnecessary files and programs from our computers and mobile phones. Your WordPress website is no different. Ensure that you delete your unused plugins, delete images/videos that are no longer required, and clean all irrelevant data from your site. This can have a great impact on the speed of your site.
Summing Up
These are the most common methods of improving the speed of your WP website. If you have any more tips to share that have worked for you in the past, you can share those in the comment section below.
